Independent Spirt Awards Host Aidy Bryant Calls Natalie Portman a 'Stupid B****'

By Dustin Rowles | TV | February 26, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | February 26, 2024 |

The Independent Spirit Awards were held over the weekend. It used to be that they were held on the Saturday night before the Sunday night Oscars, but things change! Now they’re held on the same weekend as the SAG Awards. Instead of airing on IFC, the awards were streamed on YouTube or the Film Independent channel on X, which used to be called Twitter. Also, the acting awards are no longer split by gender — there is a lead actor category and a supporting actor category, and each has 10 nominees, which makes it much easier to slot in non-binary nominees like Emma Corrin, who was nominated this year for their role in The Murder at the End of the World.

The big winners this year were the phenomenal Past Lives, my personal favorite film of 2023, The Holdovers, and Beef. Also, Aidy Bryant hosted the show. I’d give her monologue a B-. It was neither that funny nor that memorable, but it also wasn’t mean-spirited, nor did it piss off anyone. One joke, however, landed very well, and that’s when Bryant decides she needs to roast various actors, as is the tradition in awards shows. Alas, all Bryant can think to do is to call Natalie Portman, Charles Melton, Greta Lee, and Sterling K. Brown a “stupid bitch.” What really makes it work, however, is the good-natured reaction of her targets, each of whom reacts with glee at being called a “stupid bitch.”

Here, for those interested, are the winners:

Best Feature

All of Us Strangers
American Fiction
May December
Passages
WINNER: Past Lives
We Grown Now

Best Director

Andrew Haigh, All of Us Strangers
Todd Haynes, May December
William Oldroyd, Eileen
Ira Sachs, Passages
WINNER: Celine Song, Past Lives

Best First Feature

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
Earth Mama
WINNER: A Thousand and One
Upon Entry

Best Lead Performance

Jessica Chastain, Memory
Greta Lee, Past Lives
Trace Lysette, Monica
Natalie Portman, May December
Judy Reyes, Birth/Rebirth
Franz Rogowski, Passages
Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers
Teyana Taylor, A Thousand and One
WINNER: Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
Teo Yoo, Past Lives

Best Supporting Performance

Erika Alexander, American Fiction
Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction
Noah Galvin, Theater Camp
Anne Hathaway, Eileen
Glenn Howerton, BlackBerry
Marin Ireland, Eileen
Charles Melton, May December
WINNER: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
Catalina Saavedra, Rotting in the Sun
Ben Whishaw, Passages

Best Breakthrough Performance
Marshawn Lynch, Bottoms
Atibon Nazaire, Mountains
Tia Nomore, Earth Mama
WINNER: Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers
Anaita Wali Zada, Fremont

Best Screenplay
David Hemingson, The Holdovers
WINNER: Cord Jefferson, American Fiction
Laura Moss, Brendan J. O’Brien, Birth/Rebirth
Emma Seligman, Rachel Sennott, Bottoms
Celine Song, Past Lives

Best First Screenplay

WINNER: Samy Burch; Story by Samy Burch, Alex Mechanik, May December
Noah Galvin, Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman, Ben Platt, Theater Camp
Tomás Gómez Bustillo, Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
Laurel Parmet, The Starling Girl
Alejandro Rojas, Juan Sebastián Vásquez, Upon Entry

Best Cinematography

Katelin Arizmendi, Monica
WINNER: Eigil Bryld, The Holdovers
Jomo Fray, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Pablo Lozano, Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
Pat Scola, We Grown Now

Best Editing

Santiago Cendejas, Gabriel Díaz, Sofía Subercaseaux, Rotting in the Sun
Stephanie Filo, We Grown Now
WINNER: Daniel Garber, How to Blow Up a Pipeline
Jon Philpot, Theater Camp
Emanuele Tiziani, Upon Entry

Best Documentary

Bye Bye Tiberias
WINNER: Four Daughters
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
Kokomo City
The Mother of All Lies

Best International Film

WINNER: Anatomy of a Fall
Godland
Mami Wata
Tótem
The Zone of Interest

Someone to Watch Award

Joanna Arnow, Director of The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
Laura Moss, Director of Birth/Rebirth
WINNER: Monica Sorelle, Director of Mountains

Truer Than Fiction Award
WINNER: Set Hernandez, Director of unseen

John Cassavetes Award

The Artifice Girl
Cadejo Blanco
WINNER: Fremont
Rotting in the Sun
The Unknown Country

TELEVISION

Best New Scripted Series

WINNER: Beef
Dreaming Whilst Black
I’m a Virgo
Jury Duty
Slip

Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series

Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court
WINNER: Dear Mama
Murder in Big Horn
Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence
Wrestlers

Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series

Emma Corrin, A Murder at the End of the World
Dominique Fishback, Swarm
Betty Gilpin, Mrs. Davis
Jharrel Jerome, I’m a Virgo
Zoe Lister-Jones, Slip
Bel Powley, A Small Light
Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us
Ramón Rodríguez, Will Trent
WINNER: Ali Wong, Beef
Steven Yeun, Beef

Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series

Murray Bartlett, The Last of Us
Billie Eilish, Swarm
Jack Farthing, Rain Dogs
WINNER: Nick Offerman, The Last of Us
Adina Porter, The Changeling
Lewis Pullman, Lessons in Chemistry
Benny Safdie, The Curse
Luke Tennie, Shrinking
Olivia Washington, I’m a Virgo
Jessica Williams, Shrinking

Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series

Clark Backo, The Changeling
Aria Mia Loberti, All the Light We Cannot See
Adjani Salmon, Dreaming Whilst Black
WINNER: Keivonn Montreal Woodard, The Last of Us
Kara Young, I’m a Virgo

Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series

Jury Duty